Dr. Joyce Brothers owned home on Siesta Beach

The white sands of Siesta Key Beach, sunsets, and the chance to enjoy family and friends and escape into anonymity is what kept Brothers and her family returning.

By EARLE KIMEL

Like so many others, the late Dr. Joyce Brothers found Sarasota because of a beach.

"She found the place many, many years ago, when she was at the heyday of her career," recalled Dr. Amir Arbisser, son-in-law of Brothers, who died at age 85 of respiratory failure Monday evening in New York City. "She bought this little shack out there, and that's where we'd come every year, to be there."

The white sands of Siesta Key Beach, sunsets, and the chance to enjoy family and friends and escape into anonymity is what kept Brothers and her family returning.

"We shared it with termites and rodents but we would get here every year as a family and absolutely adore that beach," Arbisser said.

Brothers pioneered the television advice show in the 1950s and enjoyed a long and prolific career as a syndicated columnist, author, and television and film personality.

She first gained fame on the TV game show "The $64,000 Question" and went on to publish 15 books and make cameo appearances on popular shows including "Happy Days" and "The Simpsons." She visited Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" nearly 100 times.

Whenever the well-traveled, iconic speaker would go to a new place, she would want to know what was unique about it.

That spirit of adventure, Arbisser said, led to the purchase of a gold mine near Arapaho National Park 30 years ago, because she wanted to and it seemed like a good idea.

"We're still waiting," Arbisser said. "But it was sort of an adventure."

It also led to the purchase of a favored getaway for Brothers and her late husband, Dr. Milton Brothers — a historic farmhouse in upstate New York, built in 1742.

And it led to Siesta Key.

"She heard Siesta Key had the best beach," Arbisser said.

It didn't hurt that the people who lived here allowed the intensely private Brothers a chance to enjoy herself.

"People were always respectful," Arbisser said. "There are enough really well known personalities in the Sarasota area that the local folks are a little bit like New Yorkers — they give them their privacy so they can go to beach walks or music and dance and enjoy their life and not be hassled."

Circus Sarasota supporter

Brothers and the family also enjoyed the circus both for entertainment and as an outlet for philanthropic endeavors.

For example once, in Iowa, the family bought out an entire 9,000-seat arena for a performance of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus so the patients of Brothers' daughter, Dr. Lisa Arbisser — an opthalmologist — could attend a special program.

Here in Sarasota, they have supported Circus Sarasota, frequently attending shows in season.

"They've been important in terms of our evolution to keep the living circus here in Sarasota," said Jennifer Mitchell, marketing director for Circus Sarasota. "They've sent children to the circus on several different ways.

"One of the things they've really supported, was they particularly focused on children with visual incapacities," she added.

After Brothers gave the Siesta Key beach shack to her daughter and son-in-law, they eventually redeveloped the property with an eye toward respecting the beach.

Stephen Ellis of MyGreenBuildings built an award-winning three-story house, called "Beach Habah," on the site.

The ultramodern house features one step back in time, a room, dubbed Joyce's room, that is modeled in the aesthetic of the original beach shack.

Two of the three lots that comprise the property were given to the Gulf Conservation Foundation and is a nesting site for endangered Snowy Plovers.

Like Joyce's room, that too pays homage to Dr. Brothers, who was attracted to Sarasota because of a beach and stayed because of the anonymity the area offered.

"She was not on camera with the family," Arbisser said. "Sarasota allowed her (that) they respected her privacy."